Embodiments relate to a picture association computer game designed to entertain as well as elicit market research or business intelligence data.
Modernly, data surveys are used to elicit consumer data. Such surveys are designed as data collection tools to assess peoples thoughts, feelings, and opinions. For example, stores and hotels often use surveys to check on the customer's experience with staff, airlines use surveys to get data on the passenger's travel experience, and physicians, psychologists, and sociologists often use surveys to help diagnose medical conditions. While surveys work to some limited degree, the questioning used by surveys are usually stated in a non-context manner, which often causes the subject to ask questions like “Why am I being asked this?” and “What do they want me to say?” Such questioning also may cause a user to answer questions using random answers just to get to the end of the survey as quickly as possible.
Computer games have come into popularity as data mining tools. Since games are inherently designed for entertainment, the bulk of the data mining surrounds the data corresponding to the game itself. For example, the number of mouse clicks may be counted, as well as the users' interaction with the game can tell the computer game manufacturer how well the game is being received. In order to gather such data, the computer game industry uses metrics such as daily active users (DAU), Monthly Active Users (MAU), Engagement, and K-Factor, which denotes the infection rate of viral game growth.
Computer games are typically designed for a particular demographic. For example, computer games may be designed for teenage boys. The computer game manufacture will often surreptitiously examine the player profile data or surveys in order to determine the demographic makeup of the computer game players in order to assess whether the game was designed to appeal to a particular demographic. Such designs are often based on focus groups and surveys, which have been shown to be ineffective.
Therefore, what is needed is a computer game method designed to entertain and engage players, gather consumer data to assess thoughts and feelings and obtain useful demographic data, while protecting the privacy of the computer game players.